(Revisited) While writing my original manuscript I added a throw-away line where one character (Elliot) says he feels like he has a hand with five aces. Another character points out that since there are six aces in a deck, someone else could have a royal flush and beat him. Five aces is not the highest ranking hand. At the time, I thought it was just funny and let it be.

Later, after I split that first draft into two novels, I needed to go back and add more story to both parts. I started by creating a problem for Elliot which resulted in a very large cash ... [More]